About Us

Centers of Excellence are flagship institutions that build and sustain Washington State’s competitive advantage through statewide leadership. Each Center focuses on a targeted industry that drives the state’s economy and is built upon a reputation for fast, flexible, quality education and training programs. A targeted industry is identified as one that is strategic to the economic growth of a region or state.

Centers are guided by industry representatives to lead collaborative and coordinated statewide education and training efforts to build a competitive workforce in a global economy.

Key roles of the Centers include:

Maintain an institutional reputation for innovation and responsive education and training delivery to their targeted industry.

Act as a broker of information and resources related to their targeted industry for industry representatives, community-based organizations, economic development organizations, community and technical colleges, secondary education institutions, and four-year colleges and universities.

Translate industry research into best practices.

Provide system coordination, coaching, and mentoring to assist in building seamless educational and work-related systems.

Build a competitive workforce for driver industries.

VISION

Washington shall become a national model in developing partnerships among business, industry and education for the purpose of enhancing economic and workforce development initiatives to meet the current and future needs of the industries critical to the state’s economic vitality.

MISSION

Washington’s Centers of Excellence shall serve as the statewide liaisons to business, industry, labor and the state’s educational systems for the purpose of creating a highly skilled and readily available workforce critical to the success of the industries driving the state’s economy and supporting Washington families.

CORE EXPECTATIONS

Economic Development Focus: Serve as partners with various state and local agencies, regional, national, and global organizations to support economic vitality and competitiveness in Washington’s driver industries

Industry Sector Strategy Focus: Collaboratively build, expand and leverage industry, labor and community and technical college partnerships to support and promote responsive, rigorous, and relevant workforce education and training.

Education, Innovation and Efficiency Focus: Leverage resources and educational partnerships to create efficiencies and support development of curriculum and innovative delivery of educational strategies to build a diverse and competitive workforce.

Workforce Supply/Demand Focus: Research, analyze and disseminate information related to training capacity, skill gaps, trends, and best practices within each industry sector to support a viable new and incumbent workforce.

Centers of Excellence

The ten Centers of Excellence are hosted by community and technical colleges throughout Washington State, USA.